With the ever-increasing popularity of electric vehicles (EVs) and hybrid electric vehicles (HEVs), many companies and public parking structures are responding by installing a few charging points in or near their locations. Since these charging points are typically few in number, drivers frequently have to simply arrive at the location and drive by the charging points to determine charging point availability. Because charging typically takes hours to complete, if a charging point is not currently available, drivers cannot simply wait for one to become available. If the drivers want to check on availability, they must re-visit the charging points throughout the day, to see if a spot is open.
In one present implementation, an electric vehicle charging station network server manages a plurality of charging stations and receives subscriber notification message preferences for a subscriber (e.g., electric vehicle operator) which indicate one or more events of interest for whiche the subscriber wishes to receive notification messages. A set of one or more contact points associated with the subscriber is also received. The server authorizes the subscriber to use one of the plurality of charging stations. The server receives data associated with the subscriber from that charging station which indicates that a charging session has been established for an electric vehicle associated with the subscriber. The server detects an event of interest for the subscriber and transmits a notification message for that event to at least one of the set of contact points associated with the subscriber.